Club 80-90 Forums

Got quite a noticable ticking coming from the engine that speeds up with revs. Van running fine, but its a bit odd. What's the most likely cause?

Has the van been stood for a while? The hydraulic tappets can drain down after a week or two. The fix is to take it for a 15 minute drive.

No, it's not that because it's been happening for a couple of weeks and I've done a fair bit of driving in it in that time.

hydraulic tappet is most likely
often after not using it
give it a good run and a bit of a trash

or possibly hole in exhaust close to engine is smilar but noisier under load

Yeh, hole in the exhaust is what's worrying me. Will have a luck underneath later. Should be fairly easy to spot, right?

When stationary as well as driving?

I had a 1mm dia pin hole in the exhaust rght by the head once, it was more noisy when driven quite quiet at idle and got louder under load, most noticeable when in a tunnel or driving by a wall as the noise is reflected
found it by using a vacuum cleaner tube to my ear like a stethoscope and pointing the other end around until i found the loud place, be careful of belts while doing this

another possibility is water pump bearing shot impellar hits the block

could still be a shot tappet also but the stethoscope trick should get you closer

I use a cardboard tube from a catering pack of foil for the same technique - just saves the chance of sticking a lot of volts into your ear! (It could also be a plug lead shorting out, this can be quite loud and noticeable. Worth looking at the leads in the dark for that.)

Oldiebut goodie wrote:just saves the chance of sticking a lot of volts into your ear!

good point but my vacuum hose is plastic as most are these days, your vac must be old or posh

trucker wrote:When stationary as well as driving?

Yes.

Isolate it. Actually find where its coming from. Use a hose to listen through or a long handled screwdriver with the handle pressed against your ear and touch the tappet covers each side from underneath. Without knowing where its coming from we can only guess at what might cause it. A bomb maybe?

Cato... I think it is a bombe!
(Just showing my age!)